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Rock's retirement

By PAUL M. GREEN

Paul M. Green

"What have I earned for all that work, I said, for all that I have done at my own charge? The daily spite of this unmannerly town, where who has served the most is most defamed."

W.B. Yeats, The People.

State Senate President Philip Rock's decision not to seek reelection or another public office is a tragedy for Illinois government and its citizens. The 1990s loom as the most difficult decade ever for state and local government to fulfill its responsibilities to provide needed public services funded by revenue from traditional tax bases. Unfortunately, Rock's departure at the end of 1992 will make this tough task tougher.

During his two decades as a lawmaker and as Senate president since 1979, Rock has earned deservedly the reputation of being loyal to his Democratic party but never blinded by irrational partisanship or political one-upsmanship. One old-time newspaperman claimed that Rock's main political problem was that "he was too interested in policy."

Philip J. Rock

Philip J. Rock
Senate President 1979-1992

In 1983 Rock broke a legislative partisan logjam by advocating a temporary income tax surcharge to help state government weather a bitter recession. In other cases, Rock has been willing to risk the political fallout to support the passage of the state's Domestic Violence Act, the push for stronger child support enforcement laws and the need for a state gas tax increase and a subsidy to the Chicago Transit Authority. During the annual end-of-session, heated Senate debates, the most memorable scene usually came when Rock took the floor and spoke on a controversial piece of legislation. The chamber quieted down both in the gallery and on the floor as everyone listened. Rock almost always spoke as a knowledgeable, articulate and persuasive advocate and at times came close to eloquence. Unfortunately few of Rock's colleagues were able to match his intellect or force of argument.

Rock's retirement will remove a voice of reason when Illinois needs a rational sorting out of the rhetorical and pseudodemagogic messages currently considered as potential policy options. Consider the following:

• Property tax caps and freezes are needed to stop the wild spending of alien local government officials. What is not said is that many of these free-spending local government officials, especially in the collar counties, are the loyal precinct committeemen or partisan allies of their alleged severest critics in the state legislature. Note also that two-thirds to three-fourths of all property tax dollars go for local schools and city and village services.

36/February l992/Illinois Issues


• Tax reform means tax relief. Nonsense! Shuffling a deck of cards only rearranges them; it does not add more cards. A dollar reduction for some taxpayers means either someone else pays or the bottom line is reduced.

• Politician is a dirty word, and the people are going to do something about it. In reality, most Americans are growing bored with their democracy. They don't vote or even take much of an interest in government or politics.


Without Phil Rock's dignified presence as Senate president, without his intellect and courage, finding solutions to the state's financial mess will be far, far more difficult

Perhaps the area where a man like Rock will be missed the most is in the coming debate on how to fund state government for the rest of the century and into the next. Simply stated, little will be accomplished if discussions get mired in traditional political and regional conflicts or get bogged down by any of the current half-baked ideas to solve critical financial problems.

Pressures will be great in Springfield as competing interests (most of them advocating worthy causes) will fight for stable or increased funding. Unless radical budgetary changes are made in how and why revenue is raised and where and for what it is spent, we'll see more overtime sessions filled with name-calling silliness and ending in unfulfilled pledges and red ink. Without Phil Rock's dignified presence as Senate president, without his intellect and courage, finding solutions to the state's financial mess will be far, far more difficult.

Illinois is about to lose its Rock. Throughout his legislative career, he has been an honorable man, often working quietly to improve basic state government services. He indeed has been honestus quam splendidus — reputable rather than showy. So long, Phil.

Paul M. Green is director of the Institute for Public Policy and Administration, Governors State University.

February 1992/Illinois Issues/37


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